"In France the great territorial survey orcadastrehas been in progress for many years. It was first suggested in 1763, and after an interval of thirty years, during which no progress was made, it was renewed by the government of that day, and individuals of the highest scientific reputation, MM. Lagrange, Laplace, and Delambre, were consulted with respect to the best mode of carrying into effect the intention of government. Subsequent events suspended any effectual operations in the Frenchcadastretill the year 1802, when a school of topographical engineering was organised. The operations now in progress were fully commenced in 1808. The principle adopted is the formation of a central commission acting in conjunction with the local authorities; the classification of lands, according to an ascertained value, is made by three resident proprietors of land in each district, selected by the municipal council, and by the chief officer of revenue. 'In the course of thirteen years, one-third only of each department had been surveyed, having cost the state £120,000 per annum. At the rate at which it is carried on, it may be computed as likely to require for its completion a total sum of £4,680,000, or an acreable charge of 8¾d.' The delay of the work, as well as the increase of expense, seem to have been the result of the minuteness of the survey, which extends to every district field—a minuteness which, for many reasons, your committee consider both unnecessary and inexpedient to be sought for in the proposed Survey of Ireland."The survey of Bavaria is of modern date, but of equal minuteness. It is commenced by a primary triangulation, and principal and verification bases; it is carried on to a second triangulation, with very accurate instruments, so as to determine 'all the principal points; the filling up the interior is completed by a peculiar species of plane table; and in order to do away with the inaccuracies of the common chain, the triangulation is carried down on paper to the most minute corners of fields.'The map is laid down on a scale of twelve inches to the mile, or one-five-thousandth part of the real size; and as it contains all that is required in the most precise survey of property, it is used in the purchase and sale of real estates."The cadastre of Savoy and Piedmont began in 1729, and is stated to have at once afforded the government the means of apportioning justly all the territorial contributions, and to have put an end to litigations between individuals, by ascertaining, satisfactorily, the bounds of properties."The Neapolitan survey under Visconti, and that of the United States under Heslar, are both stated to be in progress; but your committee have not had the means of ascertaining on what principles they are conducted."
"In France the great territorial survey orcadastrehas been in progress for many years. It was first suggested in 1763, and after an interval of thirty years, during which no progress was made, it was renewed by the government of that day, and individuals of the highest scientific reputation, MM. Lagrange, Laplace, and Delambre, were consulted with respect to the best mode of carrying into effect the intention of government. Subsequent events suspended any effectual operations in the Frenchcadastretill the year 1802, when a school of topographical engineering was organised. The operations now in progress were fully commenced in 1808. The principle adopted is the formation of a central commission acting in conjunction with the local authorities; the classification of lands, according to an ascertained value, is made by three resident proprietors of land in each district, selected by the municipal council, and by the chief officer of revenue. 'In the course of thirteen years, one-third only of each department had been surveyed, having cost the state £120,000 per annum. At the rate at which it is carried on, it may be computed as likely to require for its completion a total sum of £4,680,000, or an acreable charge of 8¾d.' The delay of the work, as well as the increase of expense, seem to have been the result of the minuteness of the survey, which extends to every district field—a minuteness which, for many reasons, your committee consider both unnecessary and inexpedient to be sought for in the proposed Survey of Ireland.
"The survey of Bavaria is of modern date, but of equal minuteness. It is commenced by a primary triangulation, and principal and verification bases; it is carried on to a second triangulation, with very accurate instruments, so as to determine 'all the principal points; the filling up the interior is completed by a peculiar species of plane table; and in order to do away with the inaccuracies of the common chain, the triangulation is carried down on paper to the most minute corners of fields.'The map is laid down on a scale of twelve inches to the mile, or one-five-thousandth part of the real size; and as it contains all that is required in the most precise survey of property, it is used in the purchase and sale of real estates.
"The cadastre of Savoy and Piedmont began in 1729, and is stated to have at once afforded the government the means of apportioning justly all the territorial contributions, and to have put an end to litigations between individuals, by ascertaining, satisfactorily, the bounds of properties.
"The Neapolitan survey under Visconti, and that of the United States under Heslar, are both stated to be in progress; but your committee have not had the means of ascertaining on what principles they are conducted."
The committee adopted a scale for the maps of six inches to a statute mile, believing, apparently with justice, that a six-inch scale map, if perfectly well executed, would be minute enough for buyers and sellers of land, especially as the larger holdings are generally townlands, the bounds of which they meant to include. And, wherever a greater scale was needed, the pentagraph afforded a sufficiently accurate plan of forming maps to it. They, in another point,proposedto differ from the Bavarian Survey, in omitting field boundaries, as requiring too much time and expense; but they stated that barony, parish, and townland boundaries were essential to the utility of the maps. They also seemed to think that for private purposes their utility would much depend on their being accompanied, as the Bavarian maps were, by a memoir of the number of families, houses, size, and description of farms, and a valuation. And for this purpose they printed all the forms. The valuation still goes on of the townlands, and classes of soil in each. The Statistical Memoir has, unfortunately, been stopped, and no survey or valuation of farms, or holdings as such, has been attempted. We wouldnowonly recall attention to the design of the Committee of 1824 on the subject.
They proposed to leave the whole Survey to the Board of Ordnance, and the Valuation to Civil Engineers.
The Valuation has been regulated by a series of Acts of Parliament, and we shall speak of it presently.
The Survey commenced in 1826, and has gone on under the superintendence of Colonel Colby, and the local control of Captain Larcom.
The following has been its progress:—First, a base line of about five miles was measured on the flat shore of Lough Foyle, and from thence triangular measurements were made by the theodolite and over the whole country, and all the chief points of mountain, coast, etc., ascertained. How accurately this was done has been proved by an astronomical measurement of the distance from Dublin to Armagh (about seventy miles), which only differed four feet from the distance calculated by the Ordnance triangles.
Having completed these large triangles, a detailed survey of the baronies, parishes, and townlands of each county followed. The field books were sent to the central station at Mountjoy, and sketched, engraved on copper, and printed there. The first county published was Derry, in 1833, and now the townland survey is finished, and all the counties have now been engraved and issued, except Limerick, Kerry, and Cork.
The Survey has also engraved a map of Dublin City on the enormous scale of five feet to a statute mile. This map represents the shape and space occupied by every house, garden, yard, and pump in Dublin. It contains antiquarian lettering. Every house, too, is numbered on the map. One of its sheets, representing the space from Trinity College to the Castle, is on sale, as we trust the rest of it will be.
Two other sets of maps remain to be executed. First—maps of the towns of Ireland, on a scale of five feet to a mile. Whatever may be said in reply to Sir Denham Norrey's demand for a survey of holdings in rural districts does not apply to the case of towns, and we, therefore, trust that the holdings will be marked and separately valued in towns.
The other work is a generalshadedmap of Ireland, on a scale of one inch to the statute mile. At present, as we elsewhere remarked, the only tolerable shaded map of Ireland is that of the Railway Commission, which is on a scale of one inch to four statute miles. Captain Larcom proposes, and the Commission on the Ordnance Memoir recommend, that contour lines should be the skeleton of the shading. If this plan be adopted the publication cannot be for some years; but the shading will have the accuracy of machine-work instead of mere hand skill. Contours are lines representing series of levels through a country, and are inestimable for draining, road-making, and military movements. But though easily explained to the eye, we doubt our ability to teach their meaning by words only.
To return to the townland or six-inch survey. The names were corrected by Messrs. Petrie, O'Donovan, and Curry, from every source accessible inIreland. Its maps contain the county, barony, parish, townland, and glebe boundaries, names and acreage; names and representations of all cities, towns, demesnes, farms, ruins, collieries, forges, limekilns, tanneries, bleach-greens, wells, etc., etc.; also of all roads, rivers, canals, bridges, locks, weirs, bogs, ruins, churches, chapels; they have also the number of feet of every little swell of land, and a mark for every cabin.
Of course these maps run to an immense number. Thus, for the county of Galway there are 137 double folio sheets, and for the small county of Dublin, 28. Where less than half the sheet is covered with engraving (as occurs towards the edges of a county) the sheet is sold, uncoloured, for 2s.6d.; where more than half is covered the price is 5s.
In order to enable you to find any sheet so as to know the bearings of its ground on any other, there is printed for each county an index map, representing the whole county on one sheet. This sheet is on a small scale (from one to three miles to an inch), but contains in smaller type the baronies and parishes, roads, rivers, demesnes, and most of the information of general interest. This index map is divided by lines into as many oblong spaces as there are maps of the six-inch scale, and the spaces are numbered to correspond with the six-inch map. On the sides of the index maps are tables of the acreage of the baronies and parishes; and examples of the sort of marks and type used for each class of subjects in thesix-inchmaps. Uncoloured, the index map, representing a whole county, is sold for 2s.6d.
Whenever those maps are re-engraved, the Irish words will, we trust, be spelled in an Irish and civilised orthography, and not barbarously, as at present.
It was proposed to print for each county one or more volumes, containing the history of the district and its antiquities, the numbers, and past and present state and occupations of the people, the state of its agriculture, manufactures, mines, and fisheries, and what means of extending these existed in the county, and its natural history, including geology, zoology, etc. All this was done for the town of Derry, much to the service and satisfaction of its people. All this ought to beas fullydone for Armagh, Dublin, Cork, and every other part of Ireland.
The commissioners recommend that the geology of Ireland (and we would add natural history generally) should be investigated and published, not by the topographical surveyors nor in counties, but by a special board, and for the whole of Ireland; and they are right, for our plants, rocks, and animals are not within civil or even obvious topographical boundaries, and we have plenty of Irishmen qualified to execute it. They also advise that the statistics should be entrusted to a statistical staff, to be permanently kept up in Ireland. This staff would take the census every ten years, and would in the intervals between the beginning and ending of each census have plenty of statistical business to do for parliament (Irish or Imperial) and for public departments. If we are ever to have a registry of births, deaths (with the circumstances of each case), and marriages, some such staff will be essential to inspect the registry, and work up information from it. But the history, antiquities, and industrial resources, the commissioners recommend to have published in county volumes. They are too solicitous about keeping such volumes to small dimensions; but the rest of their plans are admirable.
The value of this to Ireland, whether she be a nation or a province, cannot be overrated. From the farmer and mechanic to the philosopher, general, and statesman, the benefit will extend, and yet so careless or so hostile are ministers that they have not conceded it, and so feeble by dulness or disunion are Irishmen and Irish members, that they cannot extort even this.
We now come to the last branch of the subject—
THE VALUATION.
The Committee of 1824 recommended only principles of Valuation. They were three, viz.:—
"§ 1. A fixed and uniform principle of valuation applicable throughout the whole work, and enabling the valuation not only of townlands, but that of counties to be compared by one common measure. § 2. A central authority, under the appointment of government, for direction and superintendence, and for the generalisation of the returns made in detail. § 3. Local assistance, regularly organised, furnishing information on the spot, and forming a check for the protection of private rights."
"§ 1. A fixed and uniform principle of valuation applicable throughout the whole work, and enabling the valuation not only of townlands, but that of counties to be compared by one common measure. § 2. A central authority, under the appointment of government, for direction and superintendence, and for the generalisation of the returns made in detail. § 3. Local assistance, regularly organised, furnishing information on the spot, and forming a check for the protection of private rights."
Accordingly, on the 5th of July, 1825, an Act was passed requiring, in the first instance, the entry in all the grand jury records of the names and contents of all parishes, manors, townlands, and other divisions, and the proportionate assessments. It then went on to authorise the Lord Lieutenant to appoint surveyors to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. These surveyors were empowered to require the attendance of cess collectors and other inhabitants, and with their help to examine, and ascertain, and mark the "reputed boundaries of all and every or any barony, half barony, townland parish, or other division or denomination of land," howsoever called. The Act also inflicted penalties on persons removing or injuring any post, stone, or other mark made by the surveyors; but we believe there has been no occasion to enforce these clauses, the good sense and good feeling of the people being ample securities against such wanton crime. Such survey was not to affect the rights of owners; yet from it lay an appeal to the Quarter Sessions.
This, as we see, relates tocivil boundaries, notvaluations.
In May, 1820, another Act was passed directing the Ordnance officers to send copies of their maps, as fast as finished, to the Lord Lieutenant, who was to appoint "oneCommissioner of Valuation foranycounties"; and to give notice of such appointment to the grand jury of every such county. Each grand jury was then to appoint an Appeal Committee for each barony, and a Committee of Revision for the whole county. This Commission of Valuation was then to appoint from three to nine fit valuators in the county, who, after trial by the Commissioner, were to go in parties of three and examine all parts of their district, and value such portion of it, and set down such valuation in a parish field book, according to the following average prices:—
"SCALE OF PRICES.Wheat, at the general average price of 10s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Oats, at the general average price of 6s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Barley, at the general average price of 7s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Potatoes, at the general average price of 1s. 7d. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Butter, at the general average price of 69s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Beef, at the general average price of 33s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Mutton, at the general average price of 34s. 6d. per cwt., of 112 lbs.Pork, at the general average price of 25s. 6d. per cwt., of 112 lbs."
"SCALE OF PRICES.
Wheat, at the general average price of 10s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Oats, at the general average price of 6s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Barley, at the general average price of 7s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Potatoes, at the general average price of 1s. 7d. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Butter, at the general average price of 69s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Beef, at the general average price of 33s. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Mutton, at the general average price of 34s. 6d. per cwt., of 112 lbs.
Pork, at the general average price of 25s. 6d. per cwt., of 112 lbs."
That is, having examined each tract—say a hill, a valley, an inch, a reclaimed bit, and by digging and looking at the soil, they were to consider what crop it could best produce, considering its soil, elevation, nearness to markets, and then estimating crops at the foregoing rate, they were to say how much per acre the tract was, in their opinion, worth.
From this Parish Field Book the Commissioner was to make out a table of the parishes and townlands, etc., in each barony, specifying the average and total value of houses in such sub-divisions, and to forward it to the high constable, who was to post copies thereof. A vestry of twenty-pound freeholders and twenty-shilling cesspayers was to be called in each parish to consider the table. If they did not appeal, the table was to stand confirmed; if they did appeal, the grand jury committee of appeal, with the valuation commissioner as chairman, were to decide upon the appeal; but if the assessor were dissatisfied, the appeal was to go to the committee of revision. The same committee were then to revise theproportionateliabilities ofbaronies, subject to an appeal to the Queen's Bench. The valuation so settled was to be published in theDublin Gazette, and thenceforward allgrand juryandparishrates and cesses were to be levied in theproportionsthereby fixed. But no land theretofore exempt from any rate was thereby made liable. The expenses were to be advanced from the consolidated fund, and repaid by presentment from the county.
It made theproportionatevalues of parishes and townlands, pending the baronial survey and the baronial valuation, to bind after revision and publication in some newspaper circulating in the county; butwithin three yearsthere was to be a second revision, after which they were to be published in theDublin Gazette, etc., and be final as to theproportionsof all parish or grand jury rates to be paid by all baronies, parishes, and townlands. It also directed the annexation of detached bits to the counties respectively surrounding them, and it likewise provided for theuseof the valuation maps and field books in applotting the grand jury cess charged on the holders of lands, but such valuation to be merely a guide and not final. From the varying size and value of holdings this caution was essential.
Under this last Act the valuation has been continued, as every reader of the country papers must have seen by Mr. Griffith's Notices, and is now complete in twenty counties, forward in six, begun in two, and not yet begun in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, or Dublin.
Mr. Griffith's instructions are clear and full, and we strongly recommend the study of them, and an adherence to their forms and classifications, to valuators of all private and public properties, so far as they go. He appointed two classes of valuators—Ordinary Valuators to make the first valuation all over each county, and Check Valuators to re-value patches in every district, to test the accuracy of the ordinary valuators.
The ordinary valuator was to have two copies of the Townland (or 6-inch) Survey. Taking a sheet with him into the district represented on it, he was to examine the quality of the soil in lots of from fifty to thirty acres, or still smaller bits, to mark the bounds of each lot on the survey map, and to enter in his field book the value thereof, with all the special circumstances specially stated. The examination was to include digging to ascertain the depth of the soil and the nature of the subsoil. All land was to be valued at its agricultural worth, supposing it liberally set, leaving out the value of timber, turf, etc. Reductions were to be made for elevation above the sea, steepness, exposure to bad winds, patchiness of soil, bad fences, and bad roads. Additions were to be made for neighbourhood of limestone, turf, sea, or other manure, roads, good climate and shelter, nearness to towns.
The following classification of soils was recommended:—
"ARRANGEMENT OF SOILS.All soils may be arranged under four heads, each representing the characteristic ingredients, as—1. Argillaceous, or clayey; 2. Silicious, or sandy; 3. Calcareous, or limy; 4. Peaty.For practical purposes it will be desirable to sub-divide each of these classes:—Thus argillaceous soils may be divided into three varieties, viz.—clay, clay loam, and argillaceous alluvial.Of silicious soils there are four varieties, viz.—sandy, gravelly, slaty, and rocky.Of calcareous soils we have three varieties, viz.—limestone, limestone gravel, and marl.Of peat soils two varieties, viz.—moor, and peat or bog.In describing in the field book the different qualities of soils, the following explanatory words may be used as occasion may require:—Stiff—Where a soil contains a large proportion, say one-half, or even more, of tenacious clay, it is called stiff. In dry weather this kind of soil cracks and opens, and has a tendency to form into large and hard lumps, particularly if ploughed in wet weather.Friable—Where the soil is loose and open, as is generally the case in sandy, gravelly, and moory lands.Strong—Where a soil contains a considerable portion of clay, and has some tendency to form into clods or lumps, it may be called strong.Deep—Where the soil exceeds ten inches in depth the term deep may be applied.Shallow—Where the depth of the soil is less than eight inches.Dry—Where the soil is friable, and the subsoil porous (if there be no springs), the term dry should be used.Wet—Where the soil or subsoil is very tenacious, or where springs are numerous.Sharp—Where there is a moderate proportion of gravel, or small stones.Fine or Soft—Where the soil contains no gravel, but is chiefly composed of very fine sand, or soft, light earth without gravel.Cold—Where the soil rests on a tenacious clay subsoil, and has a tendency when in pasture to produce rushes and other aquatic plants.Sandy or Gravelly—Where there is a large proportion of sand or gravel through the soil.Slaty—Where the slaty substratum is much intermixed with the soil.Worn—Where the soil has been a long time under cultivation, without rest or manure.Poor—Where the land is naturally of bad quality.Hungry—Where the soil contains a considerable portion of gravel, or coarse sand, resting on a gravelly subsoil; on such land manure does not produce the usual effect.Thecolours of soilsmay also be introduced, as brown, yellow, blue, grey, red, black, etc.Also, where applicable, the words steep, level, shrubby, rocky, exposed, etc., may be used."
"ARRANGEMENT OF SOILS.
All soils may be arranged under four heads, each representing the characteristic ingredients, as—1. Argillaceous, or clayey; 2. Silicious, or sandy; 3. Calcareous, or limy; 4. Peaty.
For practical purposes it will be desirable to sub-divide each of these classes:—
Thus argillaceous soils may be divided into three varieties, viz.—clay, clay loam, and argillaceous alluvial.
Of silicious soils there are four varieties, viz.—sandy, gravelly, slaty, and rocky.
Of calcareous soils we have three varieties, viz.—limestone, limestone gravel, and marl.
Of peat soils two varieties, viz.—moor, and peat or bog.
In describing in the field book the different qualities of soils, the following explanatory words may be used as occasion may require:—
Stiff—Where a soil contains a large proportion, say one-half, or even more, of tenacious clay, it is called stiff. In dry weather this kind of soil cracks and opens, and has a tendency to form into large and hard lumps, particularly if ploughed in wet weather.
Friable—Where the soil is loose and open, as is generally the case in sandy, gravelly, and moory lands.
Strong—Where a soil contains a considerable portion of clay, and has some tendency to form into clods or lumps, it may be called strong.
Deep—Where the soil exceeds ten inches in depth the term deep may be applied.
Shallow—Where the depth of the soil is less than eight inches.
Dry—Where the soil is friable, and the subsoil porous (if there be no springs), the term dry should be used.
Wet—Where the soil or subsoil is very tenacious, or where springs are numerous.
Sharp—Where there is a moderate proportion of gravel, or small stones.
Fine or Soft—Where the soil contains no gravel, but is chiefly composed of very fine sand, or soft, light earth without gravel.
Cold—Where the soil rests on a tenacious clay subsoil, and has a tendency when in pasture to produce rushes and other aquatic plants.
Sandy or Gravelly—Where there is a large proportion of sand or gravel through the soil.
Slaty—Where the slaty substratum is much intermixed with the soil.
Worn—Where the soil has been a long time under cultivation, without rest or manure.
Poor—Where the land is naturally of bad quality.
Hungry—Where the soil contains a considerable portion of gravel, or coarse sand, resting on a gravelly subsoil; on such land manure does not produce the usual effect.
Thecolours of soilsmay also be introduced, as brown, yellow, blue, grey, red, black, etc.
Also, where applicable, the words steep, level, shrubby, rocky, exposed, etc., may be used."
Lists of market prices were sent with the field books, and the amounts then reduced to a uniform rate, which Mr. Griffith fixed at 2s.6d.per pound over the prices of produce mentioned in the Act.
Rules were also given for valuation of houses, but we must refer to Mr. Griffith's work for them.
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF IRELAND.
While the Irish were excluded from English law and intercourse, England imposed no restrictions on our trade. The Pale spent its time tilling and fighting, and it was more sure of its bellyful of blows than of bread. It had nothing to sell; why tax its trade? The slight commerce of Dublin was needful to the comforts of the Norman Court in Dublin Castle. Why shoulditbe taxed? The market of Kilkenny was guarded by the spears of the Butlers, and from Sligo to Cork the chiefs and towns of Munster and Connaught—the Burkes, O'Loghlens, O'Sullivans, Galway, Dingle, and Dunboy—carried on a trade with Spain, and piracy of war against England. Howcould theybe taxed?
Commercial taxes, too, in those days were hard to be enforced, and more resembled toll to a robber than contribution to the state. Every great river and pass in Europe, from the Rhine and the Alps to Berwick and the Blackwater, was affectionately watched by royal and noble castles at their narrowest points, and the barge anchored and the caravan halted to be robbed, or, as the receivers called it, to be taxed.
At last the Pale was stretched round Ireland by art and force. Solitude and peace were in our plains; but the armed colonist settled in it, and the native came down from his hills as a tenant or a squatter, and a kind of prosperity arose.
Protestant and Catholic, native and colonist, had the same interest—namely, to turn this waste into a garden. They had not, nor could they have had, other things to export than Sydney or Canada have now—cattle, butter, hides, and wool. They had hardly corn enough for themselves; but pasture was plenty, and cows and their hides, sheep and their fleeces, were equally so. The natives had always been obliged to prepare their own clothing, and therefore every creaght and digger knew how to dress wool and skins, and they had found out, or preserved from a more civilised time, dyes which, to this day, are superior to any others. Small quantities of woollen goods were exported, but our assertion holds good that in our war-times there was no manufacture for export worth naming.
Black Tom Wentworth, the ablest of despots, came here 210 years ago, and found "small beginnings towards a clothing trade." He at once resolved to discourage it. He wrote so to the king on July 25th, 1636, and he was a man true to his enmities. "But," said he, "I'll give them a linen manufacture instead." Now, the Irish had raised flax and made and dyed linen from time immemorial. The saffron-coloured linen shirt was as national as the cloak and birred; so that Strafford rather introduced the linen manufacture among the new settlers than among the Irish. Certainly he encouraged it, by sending Irishmen to learn in Brabant, and by bringing French and Flemings to work in Ireland.
Charles the Second, doubtless to punish us for our most unwise loyalty to him and his father, assented to a series of Acts prohibiting the export of Irish wool, cattle, etc., to England or her colonies, and prohibiting thedirectimportation of several colonial products into Ireland. The chief Acts are 12 Charles, c. 4; 15 Charles, c. 7; and 22 and 23 Charles, c. 26. Thus were the value of land in Ireland, the revenue, and trade, and manufactures of Ireland—Protestant and Catholic—stricken by England.
Perhaps we ought to be grateful, though not to England, for these Acts. They plundered our pockets, but they guarded our souls from being anglicised. To France and Spain the produce was sent, and the woollen manufacture continued to increase.
England got alarmed, for Ireland was getting rich. The English lords addressed King William, stating that "the growth and increase of the woollen manufacture in Ireland had long been, and would beever, looked upon with great jealousy by his English subjects, and praying him, by very strict laws, totally to prohibit and suppress the same." The Commons said likewise; and William answered comfortably:—"I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland, and to encourage the linen manufacture there, and to promote the trade of England."
He was as good as his word, and even whipped and humbugged the unfortunate Irish Parliament to pass an Act, putting twenty per cent. duty on broad and ten per cent. on narrow cloths—
"But it did not satisfy the English parliament, where a perpetual law was made, prohibiting from the 20th of June, 1699, the exportation from Ireland of all goods made or mixed with wool, except to England and Wales, and with the licence of the commissioners of the revenue; duties had been before laid on the importation into England equal to a prohibition, therefore this Act has operated as a total prohibition of the exportation."
"But it did not satisfy the English parliament, where a perpetual law was made, prohibiting from the 20th of June, 1699, the exportation from Ireland of all goods made or mixed with wool, except to England and Wales, and with the licence of the commissioners of the revenue; duties had been before laid on the importation into England equal to a prohibition, therefore this Act has operated as a total prohibition of the exportation."
There was nothing left but to send the wool raw to England; to smuggle it and cloths to France and Spain, or to leave the land unstocked. The first was worst. The export to England declined, smuggling prospered, "wild geese" for the Brigade and woollen goods were run in exchange for claret, brandy, and silks; but not much land was left waste. Our silks, cottons, malt, beer, and almost every other article was similarly prohibited. Striped linens were taxed thirty per cent., many other kinds of linen were also interfered with, and twenty-four embargoes in nineteen years straitened our foreign provision trade. Thus England kept her pledge of wrath, and broke her promise of service to Ireland.
A vigorous system of smuggling induced her to relax in some points, and the cannon of the Volunteers blew away the code.
By the Union we were so drained of money, and absentee rents and taxes, and of spirit in every way, that she no longer needs a prohibitory code to prevent our competing with her in any market, Irish or foreign. The Union is prohibition enough, and that England says she will maintain.
Whether it be now possible to create home manufactures, in the old sense of the word—that is, manufactures made in the homes of the workers—is doubted.
In favour of such a thing, if it be possible, the arguments are numberless. Such work is a source of ingenuity and enjoyment in the cabin of the peasant; it rather fills up time that would be otherwise idled than takes from other work. Our peasants' wives and daughters could clothe themselves and their families by the winter night work, even as those of Norway do, if the peasants possessed the little estates that Norway's peasants do. Clothes manufactured by hand-work are more lasting, comfortable, and handsome, and are more natural and national than factory goods. Besides, there is the strongest of all reasons in this, that the factory system seems everywhere a poison to virtue and happiness.
Some invention, which should bring the might of machinery in a wholesome and cheap form to the cabin, seems the only solution of the difficulty.
The hazards of the factory system, however, should be encountered, were it sure to feed our starving millions; but this is dubious.
A Native Parliament can alone judge or act usefully on this momentous subject. An absentee tax and a resident government, and the progress of public industry and education, would enable an Irish Parliament to create vast manufactures here by protecting duties in the first instance, and to maintain them by our general prosperity, or it could rely on its own adjustment of landed property as sufficient to put the people above the need of hazarding purity or content by embarking in great manufactures.
A peasant proprietary could have wealth enough to import wrought goods, or taste and firmness enough to prefer home-made manufactures.
But these are questions for other years. We wish the reader to take our word for nothing, but to consult the writers on Irish trade:—Laurence'sInterest of Ireland(1682); Browne'sTracts(1728); Dobbs on "Trade" (1729); Hutchinson'sCommercial Restraints(1779); Sheffield on "Irish Trade" (1785); Wallace on "Irish Trade" (1798); the various "Parliamentary Reports," and the very able articles on the same subject in theCitizen.
Do not be alarmed at the list, reader; a month's study would carry you through all but the Reports, and it would be well spent. But if you still shrink, you can ease your conscience by reading Mr. John O'Connell's Report on "The Commercial Injustices," just issued by the Repeal Association. It is an elaborate, learned, and most useful tract.
NATIONAL ART.
No one doubts that if he sees a place or an action he knows more of it than if it had been described to him by a witness. The dullest man, who "put on his best attire" to welcome Cæsar, had a better notion of life in Rome than our ablest artist or antiquary.
Were painting, then, but a coloured chronicle, telling us facts by the eye instead of the ear, it would demand the Statesman's care and the People's love. It would preserve for us faces we worshipped, and the forms of men who led and instructed us. It would remind us, and teach our children, not only how these men looked, but, to some extent, what they were, for nature is consistent, and she has indexed her labours. It would carry down a pictorial history of our houses, arts, costume, and manners to other times, and show the dweller in a remote isle the appearance of countries and races of his cotemporaries.
As a register offacts—as a portrayer of men, singly, or assembled—and as a depicter of actual scenery, art is biography, history, and topography taught through the eye.
So far as it can express facts, it is superior to writing; and nothing but the scarcity offaithfulartists, or the stupidity of the public, prevents us from having our pictorial libraries of men and places. There are some classes of scenes—as where continuous action is to be expressed—in which sculpture quite fails, and painting is but a shadowy narrator.
But this, after all, though the most obvious and easy use of Painting and Sculpture, is far indeed from being their highest end.
Art is a regenerator as well as a copyist. As the historian, who composes a history out of various materials, differs from a newspaper reporter, who sets down what he sees—as Plutarch differs from Mr. Grant, and the Abbé Barthelemy from the last traveller in India—so do the Historical Painter, the Landscape composer (such as Claude or Poussin) differ from the most faithful Portrait, Landscape, or Scene Drawer.
The Painter who is a master of composition makes his pencil cotemporary with all times and ubiquitous. Keeping strictly to nature and fact, Romulus sits for him and Paul preaches. He makes Attila charge, and Mohammed exhort, and Ephesus blaze when he likes. He tries not rashly, but by years of study of men's character, and dress, and deeds, to make them and their acts come as in a vision before him. Having thus got a design, he attempts to realise the vision on his canvas. He pays the most minute attention to truth in his drawing, shading, and colouring, and by imitating the force of nature in his composition, all the clouds that ever floated by him, "the lights of other days," and the forms of the dead, or the stranger, hover over him.
But Art in its higher stage is more than this. It is a creator. Great as Herodotus and Thierry are, Homer and Beranger are greater. The ideal has resources beyond the actual. It is infinite, and Art is indefinitely powerful. The Apollo is more than noble, and the Hercules mightier than man. The Moses of Michael Angelo is no likeness of the inspired law-giver, nor of any other that ever lived, and Raphael's Madonnas are not the faces of women. As Reynolds says, "the effect of the capital works of Michael Angelo is that the observer feels his whole frame enlarged." It is creation, it is representing beings and things different from our nature, but true to their own. In this self-consistency is the only nature requisite in works purely imaginative. Lear is true to his nature, and so are Mephistopheles, and Prometheus, and Achilles; but they are not true to human nature; they are beings created by the poets' minds, and true totheirlaws of being. There is no commoner blunder in men, who are themselves mere critics, never creators, than to require consistency to the nature of us and our world in the works of poet or painter.
To create a mass of great pictures, statues, and buildings is of the same sort of ennoblement to a people as to create great poems or histories, or make great codes, or win great battles. The next best, though far inferior, blessing and power is to inherit such works and achievements. The lowest stage of all is neither to possess nor to create them.
Ireland has had some great Painters—Barry and Forde, for example, and many of inferior but great excellence; and now she boasts high names—Maclise, Hogan, and Mulready. But their works were seldom done for Ireland, and are rarely known in it. Our portrait and landscape Painters paint foreign men and scenes; and, at all events, the Irish people do not see, possess, nor receive knowledge from their works. Irish history has supplied no subjects for our greatest Artists; and though, as we repeat, Ireland possessed a Forde and Barry, creative Painters of the highest order, the pictures of the latter are mostly abroad; those of the former unseen and unknown. Alas! that they are so few.
To collect into, and make known, and publish in Ireland the best works of our living and dead Artists is one of the steps towards procuring for Ireland a recognised National Art. And this is essential to our civilisation and renown. The other is by giving education to students and rewards to Artists, to make many of this generation true representers, some of them great illustrators and composers, and, perchance, to facilitate the creation of some great spirit.
Something has been done—more remains.
There are schools in Dublin and Cork. But why are those so neglected and imperfect? and why are not similar or better institutions in Belfast, Derry, Galway, Waterford, and Kilkenny? Why is there not a decent collection of casts anywhere but in Cork, and why are they in a garret there? And why have we no gallery of Irishmen's, or any other men's, pictures in Ireland?
The Art Union has done a great deal. It has helped to support in Ireland artists who should otherwise have starved or emigrated; it has dispersed one (when, oh when, will it disperse another?) fine print of a fine Irish picture through the country, and to some extent interested as well as instructed thousands. Yet it could, and we believe will, do much more. It ought to have Corresponding Committees in the principal towns to preserve and rub up old schools of art and foster new ones, and it might by art and historical libraries, and by other ways, help the cause. We speak as friends, and suggest not as critics, for it has done good service.
The Repeal Association, too, in offering prizes for pictures and sculptures of Irish historical subjects, has taken its proper place as the patron of nationality in art; and its rewards for Building Designs may promote the comfort and taste of the people, and the reputation of the country. If artists will examine the rules by which the pictures, statues, and plates remain their property, they will find the prizes not so small as they might at first appear. Nor should they, from interest or just pride, be indifferent to the popularity and fame of success on national subjects, and with a People's Prizes to be contended for. If those who are not Repealers will treat the Association's design kindly and candidly, and if the Repealers will act in art upon principles of justice and conciliation, we shall not only advance national art, but gain another field of common exertion.
The Cork School of Art owes its existence to many causes.
The intense, genial, and Irish character of the people, the southern warmth and variety of clime, with its effects on animal and vegetable beings, are the natural causes.
The accident of Barry's birth there, and his great fame, excited the ambition of the young artists. An Irishman and a Corkman had gone out from them, and amazed men by the grandeur and originality of his works of art. He had thrown the whole of the English painters into insignificance, for who would compare the luscious commonplace of the Stuart painters, or the melodramatic reality of Hogarth, or the imitative beauty of Reynolds, or the clumsy strength of West, with the overbearing grandeur of his works?
But thepresentglories of Cork, Maclise and Hogan, the greater, but buried might of Forde, and the rich promise which we know is springing there now, are mainly owing to another cause; and that is, that Cork possesses a gallery of the finest casts in the world.
These casts are not very many—117 only; but they are perfect, they are the first from Canova's moulds, and embrace the greatest works of Greek art. They are ill-placed in a dim and dirty room—more shame to the rich men of Cork for leaving them so—but there they are, and there studied Forde, and Maclise, and the rest, until they learned to draw better than any moderns, except Cornelius and his living brethren.
In the countries where art is permanent there are great collections—Tuscany and Rome, for example. But, as we have said before, the highest service done by success in art is not in the possession but in the creation of great works, the spirit, labour, sagacity, and instruction needed by the artists to succeed, and flung out by them on their country like rain from sunny clouds.
Indeed, there is some danger of a traditionary mediocrity following after a great epoch in art. Superstition of style, technical rules in composition, and all the pedantry of art, too often fill up the ranks vacated by veteran genius, and of this there are examples enough in Flanders, Spain, and even Italy. The schools may, and often do, make men scholastic and ungenial, and art remains an instructor and refiner, but creates no more.
Ireland, fortunately or unfortunately, has everything to do yet. We have had great artists—we have not their works—we own the nativity of great living artists—they live on the Tiber and the Thames. Our capital has no school of art—no facilities for acquiring it.
To be sure, there are rooms open in the Dublin Society, and they have not been useless, that is all. But a student here cannot learn anatomy, save at the same expense as a surgical student. He has no great works of art before him, no Pantheon, no Valhalla, not even a good museum or gallery.
We think it may be laid down as unalterably true that a student should never draw from a flat surface. He learns nothing by drawing from the lines of another man—he only mimics. Better for him to draw chairs and tables, bottles and glasses, rubbish, potatoes, cabins, or kitchen utensils, than draw from the lines laid down by other men.
Of those forms of nature which the student can originally consult—the sea, the sky, the earth—we would counsel him to draw from them in the first learning; for though he ought afterwards to analyse and mature his style by the study of works of art, from the first sketches to the finished picture, yet, by beginning with nature and his own suggestions, he will acquire a genuine and original style, superior to the finest imitation; and it is hard to acquire a master's skill without his manner.
Were all men cast in a divine mould of strength and straightness and gallant bearing, and all women proportioned, graceful, and fair, the artist would need no gallery, at least to begin his studies with. He would have to persuade or snatch his models in daily life. Even then, as art creates greater and simpler combinations than ever exist in fact, he should finally study before the superhuman works of his predecessors.
But he has about him here an indifferently-made, ordinary, not very clean, nor picturesquely-clad people; though, doubtless, if they had the feeding, the dress, and the education (for mind beautifies the body) of the Greeks, they would not be inferior, for the Irish structure is of the noblest order.
To give him a multitude of fine natural models, to say nothing of ideal works, it is necessary to make a gallery of statues or casts. The statues will come in good time, and we hope, and are sure, that Ireland, a nation, will have a national gallery, combining the greatest works of the Celtic and Teutonic races. But at present the most that can be done is to form a gallery.
Our readers will be glad to hear that this great boon is about to be given to Irish Art. A society for the formation of a gallery of casts in Dublin has been founded.
It embraces men of every rank, class, creed, politics, and calling, thus forming another of those sanctuaries, now multiplying in Ireland, where one is safe from the polemic and the partisan.
Its purpose is to purchase casts of all the greatest works of Greece, Egypt, Etruria, ancient Rome, and Europe in the middle ages. This will embrace a sufficient variety of types, both natural and ideal, to prevent imitation, and will avoid the debateable ground of modern art. Wherever they can afford it the society will buy moulds, in order to assist provincial galleries, and therefore the provinces are immediately interested in its support.
When a few of these casts are got together, and a proper gallery procured, the public will be admitted to see, and artists to study, them without any charge. The annual subscription is but ten shillings, the object being to interest as many as possible in its support.
It has been suggested to us by an artist that Trinity College ought to establish a gallery and museum containing casts of all the ancient statues, models of their buildings, civil and military, and a collection of their implements of art, trade, and domestic life. A nobler institution, a more vivid and productive commentary on the classics, could not be. But if the Board will not do this of themselves, we trust they will see the propriety of assisting this public gallery, and procuring, therefore, special privileges for the students in using it.
But no matter what persons in authority may do or neglect, we trust the public—for the sake of their own pleasure, their children's profit, and Ireland's honour—will give it their instant and full support.
HINTS FOR IRISH HISTORICAL PAINTINGS.
National art is conversant with national subjects. We have Irish artists, but no Irish, no national art. This ought not to continue; it is injurious to the artists, and disgraceful to the country. The following historical subjects were loosely jotted down by a friend. Doubtless, a more just selection could be made by students noting down fit subjects for painting and sculpture, as they read. We shall be happy to print any suggestions on the subject—our own are, as we call them, mere hints with loose references to the authors or books which suggested them. For any good painting, the marked figures must be few, the action obvious, the costume, arms, architecture, postures historically exact, and the manners, appearance, and rank of the characters strictly studied and observed. The grouping and drawing require great truth and vigour. A similar set of subjects illustrating social life could be got from the Poor Report, Carleton's, Banim's, or Griffin's stories, or, better still, from observation.
The references are vague, but perhaps sufficient.
The Landing of the Milesians.—Keating, Moore's Melodies.Ollamh Fodhla Presenting his Laws to his People. Keating's, Moore's, and O'Halloran's Histories of Ireland.—Walker's Irish Dress and Arms, and Vallancey's Collectanea.Nial and his Nine Hostages.—Moore, Keating.A Druid's Augury.—Moore, O'Halloran, Keating.A Chief Riding out of his Fort.—Griffin's Invasion, Walker, Moore.The Oak of Kildare.—Moore.The Burial of King Dathy in the Alps, his thinned troops laying stones on his grave.—M'Geoghegan, "Histoire de l'Irlande" (French edition), Invasion, Walker, Moore.St. Patrick brought before the Druids at Tara.—Moore and his Authorities.The First Landing of the Danes.—See Invasion, Moore, etc.The Death of Turgesius.—Keating, Moore.Ceallachan tied to the Mast.—Keating.Murkertach Returning to Aileach.—Archæological Society's Tracts.Brian Reconnoitring the Danes before Clontarf.The Last of the Danes Escaping to his Ship.O'Ruare's Return.—Keating, Moore's Melodies.Raymond Le Gros Leaving his Bride.—Moore.Roderick in Conference with the Normans.—Moore, M'Geoghegan.Donald O'Brien Setting Fire to Limerick.—M'Geoghegan.Donald O'Brien Visiting Holycross.—M'Geoghegan.O'Brien, O'Connor, and M'Carthy making Peace to attack the Normans.—M'Geoghegan, Moore.The Same Three Victorious at the Battle of Thurles.—Moore and O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores.Irish Chiefs leaving Prince John.—Moore, etc.M'Murrough and Gloster.—Harris's Hibernica, p. 53.Crowning of Edward Bruce.—Leland, Grace's Annals, etc.Edgecombe Vainly Trying to Overawe Kildare.—Harris's Hibernica.Kildare "On the Necks of the Butlers."—Leland.Shane O'Neill at Elizabeth's Court.—Leland.Lord Sydney Entertained by Shane O'Neill.The Battle of the Red Coats.—O'Sullivan's Catholic History.Hugh O'Neill Victor in Single Combat at Clontibret.—Fynes Moryson, O'Sullivan, M'Geoghegan.The Corleius.—Dymmok's Treatise, Archæological Society's Tracts.Maguire and St. Leger in Single Combat.—M'Geoghegan.O'Sullivan Crossing the Shannon.—Pacata Hibernia.O'Dogherty Receiving the Insolent Message of the Governor of Derry.—M'Geoghegan.The Brehon before the English Judges.—Davis's Letter to Lord Salisbury.Ormond Refusing to give up his Sword.—Carte's Life of Ormond.Good Lookers-on.—Strafford's Letters.Owen Conolly before the Privy Council, 1641.—Carey's Vindiciæ.The Battle of Julianstown.—Temple's Rebellion, and Tichbourne's Drogheda.Owen Roe Organising the Creaghts.—Carte, and also Belling and O'Neill in the Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica.The Council of Kilkenny.—Carte.The Breach of Clonmel.—Do.Smoking Out the Irish.—Ludlow's Memoirs.Burning Them.—Castlehaven's Memoirs.Nagle before the Privy Council.—Harris's William.James's Entry into Dublin.—Dublin Magazine for March, 1843.The Bridge of Athlone.—Green Book and Authorities.St. Ruth's Death.—Do.The Embarkation from Limerick.—Do.Cremona.—Cox's Magazine.Fontenoy.—Do.Sir S. Rice Pleading against the Violation of the Treaty of Limerick.—Staunton's Collection of Tracts on Ireland.Molyneux's Book burned.Liberty Boys Reading a Drapier's Letter.—Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral.Lucas Surrounded by Dublin Citizens in his Shop.Grattan Moving Liberty.—Memoirs.Flood Apostrophising Corruption.—Barrington.Dungannon Convention.—Wilson, Barrington.Curran Cross-Examining Armstrong.—Memoirs.Curran Pleading before the Council in Alderman James's Case.Tone's First Society.—See his Memoirs.The Belfast Club.—Madden's U. I., Second Series, vol. i.Tone, Emmet, and Keogh in the Rathfarnham Garden.Tone and Carnot.—Tone's Memoirs.Battle of Oulart.—Hay, Teeling, etc.First Meeting of the Catholic Association.O'Connell Speaking in a Munster Chapel.—Wyse's Association.The Clare Hustings.—Proposal of O'Connell.The Dublin Corporation Speech.Father Mathew Administering the Pledge in a Munster County.Conciliation.—Orange and Green.The Lifting of the Irish Flags of a National Fleet and Army.
The Landing of the Milesians.—Keating, Moore's Melodies.
Ollamh Fodhla Presenting his Laws to his People. Keating's, Moore's, and O'Halloran's Histories of Ireland.—Walker's Irish Dress and Arms, and Vallancey's Collectanea.
Nial and his Nine Hostages.—Moore, Keating.
A Druid's Augury.—Moore, O'Halloran, Keating.
A Chief Riding out of his Fort.—Griffin's Invasion, Walker, Moore.
The Oak of Kildare.—Moore.
The Burial of King Dathy in the Alps, his thinned troops laying stones on his grave.—M'Geoghegan, "Histoire de l'Irlande" (French edition), Invasion, Walker, Moore.
St. Patrick brought before the Druids at Tara.—Moore and his Authorities.
The First Landing of the Danes.—See Invasion, Moore, etc.
The Death of Turgesius.—Keating, Moore.
Ceallachan tied to the Mast.—Keating.
Murkertach Returning to Aileach.—Archæological Society's Tracts.
Brian Reconnoitring the Danes before Clontarf.
The Last of the Danes Escaping to his Ship.
O'Ruare's Return.—Keating, Moore's Melodies.
Raymond Le Gros Leaving his Bride.—Moore.
Roderick in Conference with the Normans.—Moore, M'Geoghegan.
Donald O'Brien Setting Fire to Limerick.—M'Geoghegan.
Donald O'Brien Visiting Holycross.—M'Geoghegan.
O'Brien, O'Connor, and M'Carthy making Peace to attack the Normans.—M'Geoghegan, Moore.
The Same Three Victorious at the Battle of Thurles.—Moore and O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores.
Irish Chiefs leaving Prince John.—Moore, etc.
M'Murrough and Gloster.—Harris's Hibernica, p. 53.
Crowning of Edward Bruce.—Leland, Grace's Annals, etc.
Edgecombe Vainly Trying to Overawe Kildare.—Harris's Hibernica.
Kildare "On the Necks of the Butlers."—Leland.
Shane O'Neill at Elizabeth's Court.—Leland.
Lord Sydney Entertained by Shane O'Neill.
The Battle of the Red Coats.—O'Sullivan's Catholic History.
Hugh O'Neill Victor in Single Combat at Clontibret.—Fynes Moryson, O'Sullivan, M'Geoghegan.
The Corleius.—Dymmok's Treatise, Archæological Society's Tracts.
Maguire and St. Leger in Single Combat.—M'Geoghegan.
O'Sullivan Crossing the Shannon.—Pacata Hibernia.
O'Dogherty Receiving the Insolent Message of the Governor of Derry.—M'Geoghegan.
The Brehon before the English Judges.—Davis's Letter to Lord Salisbury.
Ormond Refusing to give up his Sword.—Carte's Life of Ormond.
Good Lookers-on.—Strafford's Letters.
Owen Conolly before the Privy Council, 1641.—Carey's Vindiciæ.
The Battle of Julianstown.—Temple's Rebellion, and Tichbourne's Drogheda.
Owen Roe Organising the Creaghts.—Carte, and also Belling and O'Neill in the Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica.
The Council of Kilkenny.—Carte.
The Breach of Clonmel.—Do.
Smoking Out the Irish.—Ludlow's Memoirs.
Burning Them.—Castlehaven's Memoirs.
Nagle before the Privy Council.—Harris's William.
James's Entry into Dublin.—Dublin Magazine for March, 1843.
The Bridge of Athlone.—Green Book and Authorities.
St. Ruth's Death.—Do.
The Embarkation from Limerick.—Do.
Cremona.—Cox's Magazine.
Fontenoy.—Do.
Sir S. Rice Pleading against the Violation of the Treaty of Limerick.—Staunton's Collection of Tracts on Ireland.
Molyneux's Book burned.
Liberty Boys Reading a Drapier's Letter.—Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Lucas Surrounded by Dublin Citizens in his Shop.
Grattan Moving Liberty.—Memoirs.
Flood Apostrophising Corruption.—Barrington.
Dungannon Convention.—Wilson, Barrington.
Curran Cross-Examining Armstrong.—Memoirs.
Curran Pleading before the Council in Alderman James's Case.
Tone's First Society.—See his Memoirs.
The Belfast Club.—Madden's U. I., Second Series, vol. i.
Tone, Emmet, and Keogh in the Rathfarnham Garden.
Tone and Carnot.—Tone's Memoirs.
Battle of Oulart.—Hay, Teeling, etc.
First Meeting of the Catholic Association.
O'Connell Speaking in a Munster Chapel.—Wyse's Association.
The Clare Hustings.—Proposal of O'Connell.
The Dublin Corporation Speech.
Father Mathew Administering the Pledge in a Munster County.
Conciliation.—Orange and Green.
The Lifting of the Irish Flags of a National Fleet and Army.
OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
Men are ever valued most for peculiar and original qualities. A man who can only talk commonplace, and act according to routine, has little weight. To speak, look, and do what your own soul from its depths orders you are credentials of greatness which all men understand and acknowledge. Such a man's dictum has more influence than the reasoning of an imitative or commonplace man. He fills his circle with confidence. He is self-possessed, firm, accurate, and daring. Such men are the pioneers of civilisation and the rulers of the human heart.
Why should not nations be judged thus? Is not a full indulgence of its natural tendencies essential to apeople'sgreatness? Force the manners, dress, language, and constitution of Russia, or Italy, or Norway, or America, and you instantly stunt and distort the whole mind of either people.
The language, which grows up with a people, is conformed to their organs, descriptive of their climate, constitution, and manners, mingled inseparably with their history and their soil, fitted beyond any other language to express their prevalent thoughts in the most natural and efficient way.
To impose another language on such a people is to send their history adrift among the accidents of translation—'tis to tear their identity from all places—'tis to substitute arbitrary signs for picturesque and suggestive names—'tis to cut off the entail of feeling, and separate the people from their forefathers by a deep gulf—'tis to corrupt their very organs, and abridge their power of expression.
The language of a nation's youth is the only easy and full speech for its manhood and for its age. And when the language of its cradle goes, itself craves a tomb.
What business has a Russian for the rippling language of Italy or India? How could a Greek distort his organs and his soul to speak Dutch upon the sides of the Hymettus, or the beach of Salamis, or on the waste where once was Sparta? And is it befitting the fiery, delicate-organed Celt to abandon his beautiful tongue, docile and spirited as an Arab, "sweet as music, strong as the wave"—is it befitting in him to abandon this wild, liquid speech for the mongrel of a hundred breeds called English, which, powerful though it be, creaks and bangs about the Celt who tries to use it?
We lately met a glorious thought in the "Triads of Mochmed," printed in one of the Welsh codes by the Record Commission: "There are three things without which there is no country—common language, common judicature, and co-tillage land—for without these a country cannot support itself in peace and social union."
A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. A nation should guard its language more than its territories—'tis a surer barrier, and more important frontier, than fortress or river.
And in good times it has ever been thought so. Who had dared to propose the adoption of Persian or Egyptian in Greece—how had Pericles thundered at the barbarian? How had Cato scourged from the forum him who would have given the Attic or Gallic speech to men of Rome? How proudly and how nobly Germany stopped "the incipient creeping" progress of French! And no sooner had she succeeded than her genius, which had tossed in a hot trance, sprung up fresh and triumphant.
Had Pyrrhus quelled Italy, or Xerxes subdued Greece for a time long enough to impose new languages, where had been the literature which gives a pedigree to human genius? Even liberty recovered had been sickly and insecure without the language with which it had hunted in the woods, worshipped at the fruit-strewn altar, debated on the council-hill, and shouted in the battle-charge.
There is a fine song of the Fusians, which describes